Editorial: Crime down in Morinville according to Maclean’s, residents say otherwise

Maclean’s Magazine has released its annual Canada’s Most Dangerous Places report, an annual piece of statistics gathering that ranks Canada’s most dangerous and safest communities according to crime data.

In it, Morinville has dropped in terms of violent crime significantly from 46th place in the 2018 report to 164th out of 237 in the report Maclean’s published in mid-November.

The reality is that statistics like the Crime Severity Index are not worth the glossy paper they are printed on, at least not in knowing an accurate picture of the local crime scene.

A single homicide can raise or lower those annual numbers well up and down the chart, and when the report refers to Morinville, they are referring to the region the Morinville RCMP Detachment covers.

On the general Crime Severity Index, Morinville dropped from 87 to 148th place out of 237 communities.

According to the report, there were 33 break-and-enters this year, compared to 46 last year.

Excellent News. Let’s all leave our cars, garages and homes unlocked.

No. Let’s not.

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We need to keep in mind – those numbers are for the entire Detachment area.

A decline of 13 reported B&Es in an area as large as this detachment may be enough to drop Morinville to one of the safest places in Canada, according to Maclean’s. But anyone who spends any time on the local rant and rave page or social media, in general, know the number is higher than the numbers reported to the police.

Hardly a day goes by that someone is not posting security camera footage from their home or business of sketchy individuals looking for an opportunity to take what they have not earned.

As residents, we need to communicate every crime to the RCMP. We need to keep an eye out for our neighbours. And we need to join or at least support community organizations like Citizens on Patrol and Sturgeon Rural Crime Watch.

But if you are looking for a safer place to live, Temiskaming Shores, Ontario is the safest place in Canada to be, at least according to Maclean’s Magazine.